This text was originally an assignment for university where we were to write a review of The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. I really enjoyed the movie and liked writing about it, so I thought I should save my review somewhere. The version posted on this blog is also a bit longer and revised than the original, as I had to cut away a large portion of it to fit the limit of the assignment.
Whether you are here because you like movies, are interested in history, politics of the 20th century or maybe you just saw the movie on some best-of list, I hope you enjoy this review and either find it intriguing enough to make you watch the movie, or give you some sort of new thoughts around a movie you already had seen.
Although this text turned out as a bit of a mess, I did spend a lot of time on it, and ended up with a lot of thoughts I felt I wanted to put into words. There is also so much more i could bring up, but i think this movie has so much it can give it's viewers that this post could easily be twice or even thrice as long, and i think i've spent enough time on this text already.
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara is a biographical movie about Robert McNamara, focusing on his role in the Cold War through his own words and reflections, as well as audio recordings of the time.
As the US' Secretary of Defense between 1961 and 1968, he had a very close encounter with both the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, the US's involvement in the Vietnam war, the Kennedy Assassination of November next year, and of course President' Johnson's escalation of Vietnam with over 10 times the amount of troops Kennedy had.
Not only do these historical events themselves make McNamara's story relevant and important as a way to understand the timeline of the Cold War. But many of these events were also partially hidden from the public, making it even more difficult for someone not on the inside to understand what happened and why. Achieving a complete image of it all, as a civilian would be near impossible. His experience can give a more in-depth portrayal of the world at the time and how complex it all was.
"24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 7 years as Secretary of Defense, I lived the Cold War. [...] Cold war? Hell, it was a hot war!" - Robert McNamara, 00:16:24
The Robert McNamara the viewer meets in the movie is an older man whom has presumably distanced himself from the period and over the years done a healthy degree of reflection over his own actions, the events themselves, and what mistakes were made. The movie emphasizes this with one of the first lines he delivers in front of the camera.
"any military commander who is honest with himself [...] will admit that he's made mistakes in the application of military power [...] but he hasn't destroyed nations." - Robert McNamara at 00:02:33
This statement is meant to show the audience that the entire movie is a sort of apology for the things he himself did as Secretary of Defense, this is also further emphasized later when he talks about his experience designing cars for Ford Motors. More on that later. But even though the movie is an apology, it does not treat him with silky gloves, as only a few minutes later the movie points out exactly why he should feel sorry. During his time he got a lot of criticism and was called "a conman, an IBM machine with legs, an arrogant dictator" (00:04:36). Presumably he was not very popular with the American media
The Fog of War is therefore not only a biography, but also a testament to the Cold War, how this period is part of modern history, and the concurrent psychology around the political climate overwhelmed by fear. Nearly all of the political figures of America were afraid that communism would spread and take over the entire world, the Domino Theory. On the public level of society there was also a great fear that the two superpowers would, as most competing military forces throughout history have done, sooner or later, have a falling out. But this time, it was expected that such a seemingly inevitable conflict would launch an all-encompassing nuclear war, writing the final chapter in the epic drama of the Human Race.
Fear of the future truly was the topic of the days, but as the case usually is, the political establishment's worldview is the one that becomes most prevalent. And because of this, the main political goal of the US was to stop the spread of communism wherever it might show up. This was the world Robert McNamara lived in.
This thinking, the cultural and psychological zeitgeist, might not be so easy to understand for those of us who grew up after the fall of the Soviet Union. All timeperiods are a world in their own right with their own ideas and social understandings of basically everything around.
"It's almost impossible for our people today to put themselves back into that period." - Robert McNamara, 00:16:10
Given the way the system was mainly upheld by communist fear it's not very hard to understand the participants see a need to do anything in their power to stop a change in that direction. Even though the contemporary has the best insight into the thinking behind something, it can often be easier to determine if the right line of action was taken only in hindsight, when both sides of a the situation has been thoroughly studied.
McNamara starts by talking about his experience with the Cuban Missile Crisis, concluding that one of the most important resources to getting out of such a heated situation unharmed was understanding their opponents and how they think, the Russians.
McNamara then talks a little about his personal life, which is very clearly an attempt to better win the viewer's sympathy, before moving on to his participation in World War 2 starting in 1943 as part of the US Air Force's statistical control to analyze the Air Force's efficiency. In this segment he explains what one can learn from warfare. This same analytical knowledge from WW2, he explains, was also important when working for Ford Company, coming up with safer cars. This part of the movie is not only included to point out how important data is to know how to handle a situation, but also to portray him as an honest man that will go to great lengths to prevent unnecessary death. Although McNamara's stories seem believable, this segment seem to me more focused on the image of McNamara rather than the historical understanding, and a bit long. Personally, I couldn't help but wonder if this is more about his need to be seen as a good man, whether truthful or exaggerated.
The rest of the movie is about the Vietnam War, which also acts as the main point of the movie. From the beginning, every lesson and idea is held to consideration compared to this war, as it is widely regarded as a war where eventually everything went wrong. Hundreds of thousands of dead on both sides, the war spread to neighboring nations, and finally, when USA pulled out after 20 years of war in 1975, Vietnam could not even be prevented from becoming communist.
Previous lessons come to light when McNamara talks about his meeting with the concurrent foreign minister, 20 years after McNamara stepped down. Not until then does he actually learn how the Vietnamese people saw the conflict. The Americans, him included, saw the war as an aspect of the cold war and the spread of communism. The Vietnamese however, saw it as a fight for independence after around 100 years of being ruled by France, only to be lost to the Japanese, they did not wish to be colonized also by USA, and despite America's fears, Vietnamese history of about 1000 years as a Chinese vassal state would prevent them from accepting Chinese dominance as well.
"You are totally wrong! We were fighting for our independence, you were fighting to enslave us!" - Nguyen Co Thach, 01:06:00
McNamara and the other American politicians could never understand this way of thinking, and could especially not understand that the Vietnamese cared nothing at all for the power struggle between USA and communist forces. They were too ingrained in their own way of thinking of the situation to realize that their opponents thought of it as something entirely different. In short, they did not have the same understanding for their enemies as they had during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
McNamara's lesson about maximizing efficiency while minimizing destruction of your enemy, and collecting the necessary data, as he learned from WW2 and his experience with the Ford Company is also brought up as something that was missing. Seemingly, he did not keep these lessons in mind in Vietnam. As an example of this lacking reflection, and also valid criticism of him and his actions, there is a clip of him holding a speech about the war.
"It's a battle for the hearts and the minds of the people of south Vietnam. As a prerequisite to that we must be able to guarantee their physical security.", 01:00:06
During this quote, clips are played of bombs dropped over the country, raining destruction down in all directions, as all too often happened during this war. Although McNamara later claims he did not approve of the use of certain types of bombs, such as Agent Orange, this heavily suggests that his talk of security was either dishonest or a poor choice of words, and that USA did more harm than good for them. This is a great example of why McNamara got as much flak as he did.
But McNamara would later see how badly his understanding of the situation was, even if it was not clear to him in the present as he was too absorbed by a zeitgeist that shaped his world's social understanding. An understanding that is difficult to see before one takes a step back and views the entire world as it stands/stood as an outsider.
Hence the title "The Fog of War". McNamara explains that the expression is about how man cannot understand just how all-consuming war truly is, and how it affects all aspects of society and civilian life.
McNamara also ends on a great quote by T.S Eliot he uses to underline what the entire movie is all about, learning through experience and reflection.
"We shall not cease from exploring, and at the end of our exploration we will return to where we started and know the place for the first time" - 01:24:54
All in all, the movie is very well made both in storytelling and atmosphere. The way most of it is told as a story from one penitent man's perspective makes it all more immersive. Even if the portrayal of McNamara sometimes seem exaggerated and off-topic to the movie, it's hard not to be convinced by his performance and his alleged attempt to make people understand what really happened during this time.
The movie also gives a very deep insight to the way people of the 60s thought, the troubles politicians have to go through during various different types of chaos and pressure and how complex political games tend to be.
In summary, I believe there is a lot people can learn from this movie, about the importance of reflection, to be certain before you make a decision, how to understand the actions of political figures, what a lifetime of experience can do to a man and generally how complex most situations can be and how important it is to see this complexity.
I will personally give it an 8.7/10
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